45rpm wool jacket – Helmut Lang silk shirt – Uniqlo pant – Jil Sander shoes
I almost went with my navy Jil Sander leather sneakers, but remembered those were a bit more on the purple-ish side so I went with black shoes. I think I could easily become one of those people who wears monochrome outfits.
The office was so chilly today I had to wear my wool coat because I didn’t have a layer to wear over my silk shirt. The silk is thick and of good quality, but let’s face it – no silk can withstand cold temperatures alone.
I had a little break down again today emotionally. I barely kept it together during work and then cried when I got home and needed lots of snuggling with Z. I know I’m depressed, which is a given, but I think the anxiety of not knowing what’s going to happen is ten times worse and I felt my chest tighten a lot throughout the day. I’ve also been getting lots of emails regarding my dad’s estate, which I am solely in charge of taking care of now. There is so much fucking shit to do when someone dies! It’s fucking insane and makes me want to get rid of my credit cards and bank cards even liquidate my IRA and only deal with cash for everything. I never want to put anyone through this shit when I die. Holy fuck what has happened to us that we have to have ten fucking billion layers for every tiny little thing we do even after death!
Wednesday: 45 rpm top, Won Hundred pants, Jil Sander shoes. Bento came running and flopped in the sun spot while I was setting up for this photo. He was afraid I’d close the curtains and block out his sun spot.
The blue in the shoes (warm toned, kinda purple-ish) clashed with the blue in my shirt (cool toned). Oh well. It was amusing to me at the least.
Today there is no photo because I’m wearing a company polo shirt and Grana jeans with my Adidas runners. We had yet another outdoor company shindig and even though I wasn’t planning on running around much, I ended up doing ALL THE THINGS last minute in preparation.
I wore jeans because I couldn’t think of anything else to wear with the company top, which is a super bright blue and not something I normally wear. But now the day is over and I’m at home I’m noticing just how annoyed I am at wearing jeans. It’s not that they don’t fit right, I just don’t feel half as comfortable in them as I do all the other pants in my collection. I need jeans that fit more like baggy pants because the hip hugging in them makes the waist slide down a little and then they feel awkward. It’s kinda amazing how it’s taken me this long to realize just how much I fuss with jeans when I used to wear them religiously. Nowadays I can’t stand jeans and will avoid them at all costs unless I’m cleaning or doing yard work. I am glad I wore them today because I was running around for the company event and getting them very dirty, which seems to be a theme now with jeans for me. They are worn for getting dirty.
I keep thinking about shoes because my shoe collection is greatly lacking. I only have a few I rotate out and while they work (sorta), I really do need some that are a bit more polished and definitely before the cold weather hits.
One last thing about the joy of enjoying clothes: Gretchen said it all perfectly here. I love wearing clothes and buying clothes and I do think about clothes a lot as well. I don’t feel bad about it and I won’t be made to feel guilty for how I spend my money. I’m getting over the idea of wearing work clothes only at work because I love wearing most of them any time now. The only problem with wearing them at home though is I have to do a thorough lint-rolling to get off all the cat hair before putting them away.
Tuesday: Yohji Yamamoto top, Won Hundred pants, Eileen Fisher mules.
This is the last of the new-to-me three YY items I’ve bought recently. Nothing overly ground breaking. A simple cotton short sleeve mock neck top. Not only am I starting to embrace more white in my wardrobe (at least for summer anyway…), I’m really enjoying buying second hand items like these. I could’ve easily gotten something similar that’s brand new and easily cost 1/3 of the price I paid for this top. However, it’s the quality that makes this worthwhile. This cotton is like the black tank and my turtleneck. I love it.
The greatest difficulty this week has been dressing for two kinds of weather, daily: Office and Summer. The office is freezing and I occasionally have to go outside to thaw out from the AC chill. So far, this summer has been stifling hot with so much humidity it’s hard to breathe outside. So I’m frozen indoors and turn into a puddle outside.
Looking at this outfit, no one would know it was 90F outside. That’s how bad the AC chill in the office has me covering up. It’s ridiculous.
Saturday: Knock Knock Linen top, Grana jeans, Adidas shoes.
After the Friday night thunderstorms, the weather chilled out and Saturday was gorgeous. I’d hurt my back somehow exercising and was cursing myself for doing so because Saturday would’ve been perfect for doing much needed yard work. Instead, we drove out to our favorite orchard and bought several pints of blueberries and apricots. We always get lots of blueberries and freeze half of them so we have some to eat throughout the winter.
Afterwards, we went to a nice restaurant for lunch and then headed to the Bowman nature preserve. It’s a gated area people pay a fee to get into, but it’s got lots of hiking trails and has lots of information on local wildflowers and plants. They sell local plants they grow in the area and have a full visitor center with an education center and mini natural history museum. The hiking trails are short, but really nice and being in a completely forested area makes hiking there much more comfortable in the summer.
We hadn’t planned on going here, but I’m glad we did and our Saturday spent outside was more enjoyable this way than weeding than the yard.
Tonight’s drink: Filibuster – rye whisky, lemon juice, maple syrup, egg white, black walnut bitters. It’s basically a whisky sour but with maple syrup instead of simple syrup. I subbed black walnut bitters for Angostura because I wanted something a bit drier.
Wednesday: 45rpm shirt, Yohji pants.
Thursday: Everlane sweater (over Everlane long sleeve), Rachel Comey pants.
Friday: Banana Republic top (J Crew tee underneath), Grana jeans.
Every day this week I’ve worn Girlfriend Collective leggings underneath all pants/jeans. It’s been cold.
Late Wednesday the Comptroller for the company asked me: “So, do you have the Business Development Budget 2017 form filled out? Um… the what what? So after some digging around looking for a file he told me to dig up on the network drive, there it is – the budget – that hasn’t been updated since July….
.
.
.
Fuck.
Yeah, so that’s not done. I had no clue I even needed to update it and apparently neither did the last two people who held this position before me! YAY, guess who gets the fucking annoying task of updating it all now when I have zero time to do my regular work to begin with because it’s the beginning of the month? Ugh. It’s ok. He’s giving me time to work on it, but I swear this has become the status quo lately. I finds out about x,y, and z things that apparently fall under my duties but NO ONE informed me of so I could keep track of it and build it into my schedule to work on. *head*desk* I’ve been trying to get it done, but of course several other larger and more pressing things needed to be done ASAP so it’s now getting bumped to next week. Depending on how Monday looks with my client reports I might be able to knock it out soon or I might be working some late nights.
So in other news… it’s February. *blink*
January flew by and was so busy I didn’t have much time to think of spending, but here’s some numbers:
Discretionary spending this month: $36.75 (1 affogato – $6.75 and two special event movie tickets for Mary and the Witch’s Flower- $30.00)
Unexpected charges that should generally be put into my budgeting, but I never think of until they happen: $31.79 – oil for oil change in my car (my husband actually does the oil change himself) and vet hospital: $125.44 – wet and dry prescription cat food (expensive little buggers!).
That’s it. All other shopping was groceries for meals we ate, which was $285. I buy groceries half the month and Z buys for the other half. We both alternate the smaller grocery runs for little pick up items after the two large grocery orders. I was thinking I’d be ok to buy a few things by February, but now I honestly can’t think of anything I need or want so I’ll wait and maybe see if I can get through February without spending much either. I’m curious what my expenses and credit card statement would look like after another month of very lean spending.
Z and I both lamented the horrible, busy week we’ve both had at our respective jobs. Hence my need for a cocktail and he immediately grabbed his favorite beer when we got home. He told me throughout the day at his work, a video was constantly being played to cheer people up. This is an oldie and a total ear worm. You have been warned! If you don’t want ear worm do not watch I’m a Kitty Cat. (Or enjoy your ear worm and smile a lot.)
It’s incredibly nice outside today – 56F – so of course Z and I had to take out the Mustang. We drove to a little tourist trap of a town about 30 minutes away from our house. It’s a very cute little town, but parking is nigh impossible to find after a certain time (there were 3 spots left when we got there at 11:45 am) and the sidewalks are usually jam-packed with people. We didn’t stop at the restaurant advertised in the photo, but I liked the sign.
I’m not sure if I’m fighting off something or if the stress of the past week is still weighing on me. I slept a lot last night, but still felt heavy and drained this morning. I almost fell asleep in the car ride to the town. We stopped at a food court plaza because Z needed brunch and I needed a pick-me-up.
I was going to get a latte, but when I saw they served affogato, I knew that would be it. Hardly any place serves affogato around here, so this is a treat and now knowing this is where I can get it – I’ll be back. The barista told me he makes a shake version with two shots of espresso, and a little milk. I’m sure that’s nice in the summertime, but I like getting scoops of the ice cream in one bite and then a bit of espresso the next. Coffee shakes can be had almost anywhere, affogato is rare at any coffee shop or ice cream parlor.
Z was tempted by the Breakfast Tots he found at a different food stall in the plaza. The tots are covered in two large pieces of pork roll, topped by two fried eggs, chili sauce, chives, and cheese. He said he was in trouble because he wanted the tots from one stand, Indian from another stand, and Peruvian from another stand. Suffice to say, we’ll be going back there several times. The hot chocolate barista got us as well. We were given samples of a dark chocolate drinking cocoa and it was amazing – not too sweet, not too bitter.
Uniqlo top, 45rpm jacket, Rachel Comey pants.
I look like quite the little old lady in the first photo. I didn’t even know Z took that until I took the photos off my camera. He asked to take my photo outside.
We ran a few more errands and then headed home. I’m quite tuckered out now. Walking on the cobblestone sidewalks in the tourist town was not easy and did a number on my back and functioning leg as it compensated a lot for all the wobbling I was doing on the boot. Time to chill out, and maybe play more Zelda…
This is my Limi Feu sweater and it has a secret. When I got it, there was a hole in it.
Can you see the hole? Or rather, can you tell where it’s been patched?
The hole is on the back of the sweater and it was small. It wasn’t in the listing when the seller posted it (it’s from a discounter site in Japan), but when I got it (gifted to me by Z for Christmas) it had a very heavy moth ball scent to it. It had clearly been sitting for a while and I’m guessing the hole was in fact from a moth and I doubt the seller even knew about it. My husband had no idea and when I told him about it today he was shocked. I noticed the hole when I opened the package on Christmas day, but didn’t say anything. I just thought, “I’ll have to patch that up.” Never did I think of returning it because I wanted to keep it and I love this sweater. Today, of course, Z got a little upset and kept saying sorry about the hole, but I assured him that no matter what I would’ve bought it even if he hadn’t. I didn’t want him to feel bad about it and it’s his upset reaction that made me wait even until now to say anything. If I’m not upset, then there’s no reason he should be. It’s not a big deal to me at all. I then explained to him how I fixed it. I even lay the sweater out flat and asked him if he could tell where it was. He said no, he didn’t see anything.
To patch the hole I took some dark thread and super carefully sewed up ends of the hole together as best I could without severely pinching the fabric. The fabric is a wool and linen blend and it’s not a traditional knit, therefore trying to fix it like one would a knitted sweater is not an option. After carefully sewing a few parts of the hole to close shut, I took a piece of iron-on bonding tape and put that on the sweater and then a small piece of super thin lining fabric for bonding to the sweater. The result worked ten times better than expected. I did all of this before I ever washed the moth ball scent out of the sweater. I put the sweater in a laundry bag, put on delicate (cold water) cycle and used Woolite Dark. The smell came out and the patch job worked perfectly. I lay it out to dry and then used an iron on it to smooth it out.
Interestingly enough, the tag on the inside of the sweater in the above photo says: “Friction and repeated use may cause yarn breakage and surface damage. It is not repairable once it’s damaged. The fabric may pile up lint and fuzz on the surface. Please handle with care.” Translated: If you get a hole in this, you’re fucked!
Oh yeah? Well I don’t think so. I’ve worn the sweater a half dozen times already and my patch job is still working just fine.
This sweater is a used item and it’s a very delicate one. But, it’s not the of the world for these sorts of items if something happens to them. If there was a nasty stain on it, that would be a different story, but a tiny hole is easy to fix up for most fabrics, especially natural fiber ones.
Warning: second half of this post has an extreme amount of profanity. Seriously, if you get easily offended by any and ALL profanity, stop reading now.
Uniqlo flannel shirt, 45 rpm jacket, Uniqlo pants – in the car dealership bathroom
In other news, I spent 5 hours in a car dealership today, holding my tongue and mentally wanting to punch the shit out of the super annoying sales person who made awful jokes and clearly just thought that if she could get Z and I to laugh at her, she’d get the money out of us she wanted. Don’t think so BI-ATCH!
If there’s one thing Z knows – it’s cars. He’s a total car fan and knows how the pricing structure works for them and what’s part of a true cost for the car and what’s just a dealership bullshit cost. By the end of the day the sales rep did fuck us over – a teensy bit, but not nearly as much as she probably would’ve liked. We agreed on a price for the car, then the fucking cunt worked backwards to make the price we agreed upon, the end sales price after rebates, which then bumped up the true sales price of the car, which was NOT the agreed upon price. Z immediately caught it and said no, the price is AFTER rebates and she flat out said, “Then you’d be home by now” – meaning there would not have been a sale and she said there was no possible way to go lower because that’s the invoice price (which is a LIE – when they say you are already paying the “invoice price” that’s not entirely true – car companies give dealerships incentives so their invoice pricing is after the incentives and not the real invoice price of the car). I was ready to stand up and pummel the cunt right then and there for that. She then countered that he was already getting over $7k off the sticker price (irrelevant, you stupid bitch!), and he shook hands (also fucking irrelevant – a hand shake is a fucking posturing gesture and means nothing – the only thing that matters in the end is the signature on the line) on the price listed after the rebates because there was no talk of rebates before. She left us to talk and Z did say he should’ve thought of that, but that still doesn’t discount the fact that she flat out changed the price of the car that was agreed upon. Our paying the post rebates price still means we are paying for taxes and loan pricing for the cost before rebates. I was ready to walk out and I wanted to just to see the bitch’s angry face fall out of shock because she was already losing her composure by the second, but Z’s got a much softer temperament than I do. I’m more angry about it than him. It only upped the monthly cost by just over $10 and while he was thoroughly pissed that she finagled around him like that, he decided he wasn’t going to let it ruin the car for him. He gave her a dirty look and then said he’d agree to that cost and then turned away from her. She then barely managed to put up her chipper attitude again and said, “Normally I’d say let’s take photos…. but you don’t seem to want to…” Z and I just glared at her and I shook my head and rolled my eyes at her. He deadpan-face asked for the spare key she hadn’t given him yet.
In the end, he got the exact car he wanted with all the options he wanted for the price (range) he wanted, so he’s a happy camper. I’m still pissed a bit that she swindled us in the way she did, but if he’s happy then I need to get over it.
I don’t have photos of the car because it was nearly dark by the time we got home, but we are going for a ride tomorrow and I’ll take photos then of his new 2018 Ford Mustang GT.
As a general FYI about me: I FUCKING HATE SALES PEOPLE. 99% of them are annoying shit-cocks. Car sales people and realtors are THE WORST. I’m not like most gullible shoppers who go around browsing at things and then with just a smile and a few trendy key words will jump to buy whatever item a sales person has in front of me. I have a feeling most blogs I follow are the same way as me. We know the bullshit and can smell it from miles away. I hate going to malls and having 5 sales associates inside of two minutes ask me if they can help me at all. NO, LEAVE ME ALONE TO LOOK! I usually leave my sunglasses on in stores just for this reason. I know there is the rare gem of a SA, who understands this and I appreciate those people. Most of them are the ones who knowing look me directly in the eye and smile – maybe even give a nod – and then leave me be. But those SAs are very rare and nonexistent at car dealerships. Just sitting there today for so long listening to the other sales people schmoozing on the phone and in person with people made me want to throw up. I online shop as much as possible to bypass all the shit.
Ironically, my boss is the main sales associate and VP for our company. Sometimes on client calls I’ll cringe and want to shout at him: Shut up with the stupid flower shit-talk! No one cares! Get to the fucking point! The client he’s had me working with even called him out on it and said, “getting back to the point…”, which made me laugh. It’s always so cringey-bad when clients call sales rep out on the crap that doesn’t matter. Most of the time the flower-shit-speak doesn’t even make sense. It’s a bunch of trendy catch-all words meant to make the client feel like they are getting something good. If you actually listen to the words, you’ll know they mean nothing. It’s pure shit coming right out of the mouth instead of the ass.
Anyhow, we came home, had some scotch and dinner and now we are going to play Zelda. I told Z he owes me several hours of game play tonight for my behaving so well at the dealership. (the bitch seriously has no idea how lucky she is I kept my mouth shut…)
So I didn’t mean to go silent for two weeks, but I ended up being insanely busy. And when I wasn’t busy I was relishing in the few moments I had to do nothing. I did take outfit photos and looking at two weeks worth of them was really eye opening. I wear the same stuff over and over. I always knew that, but seeing it in photos really drove home the face that I don’t have a huge wardrobe at all. That’s not a bad thing. It’s simply an observation.
Mondays for the past 3 weeks. Latest photo taken today. I won’t bother writing what the items are that I wore because all of it has been worn before with one exception that I’ll get to in a bit:
Tuesdays:
Wednesdays: This is where I wear something NEW. Last Wednesday I wore a new pair of pants I got in the mail (second photo below). They are from Sacai Luck 2014 runway (I think) and fully lined solid wool beauties. Yes, the liner comes up to a funky drawstring above the waist button. It’s quirky and I like it and these pants are insanely warm and comfortable. I will be living in them this winter.
Thursdays: Oh look, both Thursdays I wore the Sacai Luck pants again. I meant it when I said I’d live in them.
Fridays:
I really do wear navy and black 90% of the time, don’t I?
Seeing these outfits like this makes me realize this blog might be pretty boring to look at for outfit photos since I tend to wear the same thing over and over.
In between these weeks have been two weekends. The first was an insane marathon of bathroom painting hell. The paint in our main bathroom was chipping and I tried sanding it off while I was unemployed, but just made a splotchy mess. It was going to take a LOT more work. I got maybe 25% of the walls cleared and then gave up. Since my relatives will be staying with us for the Christmas holiday we realized we really need to get that bathroom in shape. Saturday we scraped and sanded the rest of the walls. It took all day. The husband and I took shifts scraping and sanding while the other recovered from arms turning into jello. Sunday we sanded more (mostly to even out the spackling we’d done at 9 pm the night before) and then painted… and then cleaned. And finally at 7 pm Sunday night the bathroom was normal again and our arms had fallen off and we were exhausted and crying that we needed a weekend from our weekend. Monday I was a wreck. I didn’t bother doing my usual exercising again until Wednesday and even then my arms were screaming at me: why do you hate us! as I did chin ups.
But now at least the bathroom looks nice. Because the tile in there is awful 1950s salmon with black trim we kept the walls totally white. The grout is white in the tile so it looks somewhat decent that way. We also got a new shower head, light fixture and shower curtains. Everything is white except that awful tile and it looks nice and bright, but I feel like a vampire being blasted by the sun each morning when I get ready for work.
This past weekend I did nothing. Both days I spent lounging on the sofa playing games or catching up on anime. It snowed Saturday and neither the hubs nor I felt like doing anything and relished a well-earned break. We did get a Christmas tree last Friday night and decorated it Saturday while it snowed, but that was the extent of our sloth-like weekend of relaxation.
My new job will be quite taxing and busy, but I’m ok with that. The company culture is friendly, but strained because there are many departments that don’t talk to each other all that well. However, this is par for the course with a larger company. In general, I do like the people I work with, which is always a plus. The kindness shown by people willing to help out there is a breath of fresh air from the “leave me alone” sort of attitude I felt at my old job because so many people there had become complacent from being spoiled so much.
I will definitely need to work on my wardrobe a bit. I was so used to wearing anything I wanted at my old job I didn’t realize how little amount of proper business attire I actually owned.
Monday: Everlane sweater and Brass Clothing ponte pants. I had on my black Lems Nine2five shoes for work but am in slippers when I got home. Although this sweater looks ok on me I’m a bit meh about it. I need to up my sweater game.
Tuesday: J Crew sweater and Yohji Yamamoto pants with Lems shoes. It was getting rather cold in the office and I work with a pregnant woman who is always hot so I have to make sure to bring layers.
Wednesday: Everlane sweater again and Yohji Yamamoto skirt/pants, Lems Gobi Hi boots and 45rpm wool jacket. The scarf I crocheted myself many years ago. I wore my workout leggings under the skirt/pants. This is the same skirt I wore to a wedding earlier this summer, but I’m wearing the skirt as pants this time. It was much easier to walk around the office this way.
When I walked in the door my husband immediately said “You look really cute today!” I was rather surprised since I hadn’t even taken my jacket off and he didn’t know what I was wearing under it. He said he liked how the jacket and skirt looked together. I teasingly said, “then take a picture” so we went out in the front yard just before the sun went down and he took these two photos. When I saw the first one I understood what he liked, “so you like this silhouette”. He agreed and said I looked very put together. I looked a little old-timey as well and I think he likes that look too. It’s the first time I’ve heard him be so vocal about my outfits, so now I’m curious what else might peak his interest.
My standard blue and black outfit, which I gravitate to a lot.
I didn’t take a photo for Friday. It was casual day in the office so most people wore jeans and sneakers. I had on my light light blue Grana jeans and a flannel shirt, tucked in. The CEO, who is a very old man, stopped me and my supervisor, admiring our shoes. I’d worn my red Lems Primal 2 shoes and she had on some black and white patterned Nikes. He said he liked the colors, which was funny to me. I was so tired by Friday I really didn’t care too much about what I wore and looked forward to dressing down a bit.
I’d been eying a pair of Issey Miyake pants on eBay and unfortunately someone else bought them the night before I’d decided I’d get them. Now all I can think about are those pants! There is another similar pair of pants by Yohji Yamamoto on Totokaelo, but I’m not willing to drop $900 for them.
I need to work on finding a better lighting area for outfit photos. Looking at the photos overall this week – the lighting is all over the place.
Tomorrow I start my new job. I’m already wishing I had more time unemployed.
I am happy to be doing something different and interested in what the work entails, but at the same time… it’s work. *sigh* Having bigger paychecks will be nice.
Speaking of… the husband just got a new job as well and his new salary is nearly double what he was making before. I’ve already been calling him Sugar Daddy.
I’m a little uncertain how dressy the new office is so I’m going to play it safe for now. Luckily, a lot of my nicer clothes are more autumn/winter heavy so that makes getting dressed fairly easy for me. The husband is a different story. He’s gained muscle weight and doesn’t fit a lot of his old dress clothes. I’d like to try and get him to wear better clothing, but I won’t push the issue too much. It’s him and his wardrobe and he can spend and do with it what he wants.
I forget when I wore this outfit, but it was some time last week. All blue. I also now live in this wool jacket from 45rpm I got on eBay. It’s perfect for this in-between weather where it’s cool in the mornings and comfortable to slightly warm during the day. I’ve got on my 45rpm long sleeve underneath, Grana jeans, Lems Nine2five shoes.
The usual outfit photos may start up again next week now that I’ll be working and force myself into a regular routine again.
